


What Will Become of the Wild

by casualsnail



Category: The Legend of Zelda & Related Fandoms, The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild
Genre: Character Study, Introspection, Mute Link (Legend of Zelda), No Dialogue, Other, While writing at three am author decides to forsake grammar, Zelda and Ganon are mentioned
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-05-05
Updated: 2019-05-05
Packaged: 2020-02-26 02:02:47
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,051
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18714265
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/casualsnail/pseuds/casualsnail
Summary: “Why dwell on a past he couldn’t even remember clearly? He was lonely enough as it is.”Or: Link wonders about his past life and the future of Hyrule





	What Will Become of the Wild

Looking out over the vast fields of Hyrule, the sea of green trees broken only by a river snaking through, or the occasional dirt road with a worn out traveler hauling their wears along, Link wondered if others saw the ghost of the kingdom of Hyrule instead of a few splotches of people huddled together against the vast wilderness. To him, it seemed impossible. Regardless of any past memories, the land seemed untamable, it’s own writhing entity that no one, Hyrulian or otherwise, could hope to control. 

There were ruins, of course. Crumbled remnants that stood as a desperate reminder that Hyrule hadn’t always been like this. The last memories of what the kingdom could’ve been like before Ganon had ripped it apart. 

Sometimes passing by these ruins, Link wondered if he’d come to what these places had once been with Zelda one hundred years ago. A previous life. These wondering left a strange feeling in him, that he couldn’t quite describe. A sense of loneliness, and longing, yet a strange feeling of detachment as if these emotions didn’t quite belong to him. It was similar to the feeling he got whenever he remembered something of his previous life. A part of him longed to cling to this feeling, wrap himself in it like a cloak to try and pull something tangible from the void that was what remained of his life before his time in the shrine of resurrection. The other part of him did its best to push the feeling away. Why dwell on a past he couldn’t even remember clearly? He was lonely enough as it is. 

To Link, Hyrule as it was now was enough on its own. He didn’t need a grand kingdom or any fancy rank as a knight to content himself. For him, simply living out in the vastness of the world was fine. He could hunt and fish, gather bundles of mushrooms and cook them to see what they did, and spend his days poking around barely there ruins in hopes of finding a gemstone or two. Once in a while, he could head back to a town, sleep in a bed and listen to the local people. Or perhaps buy some things he couldn’t find out in the wild. He was rather fond of sugar, now that he thought about it. Then he could return to the wilderness, go off to another region to explore, and take in the land for all that it was. Not what it had been. There was a hole inside of him, one Link didn’t think that his past memories could fill. So why bother with a fragmented and long irrelevant past?

Yet some days, it was like a pressure descended on his chest. Link knew he had a duty. Zelda’s voice was still a constant presence in the back of his mind. And every blood moon, a sense of dread overcame him. Even the beautiful wilderness of Hyrule would be torn asunder if Ganon was unleashed upon it. And Link knew, no matter how hard he tried to push the feeling back, that he was the only one who could stop it. 

He was prepared for it. His responsibility. The only thing that has really been asked of him since he’d woken, yet it was such a momentous task that sometimes Link had to stop himself just to remember why he was here, after one hundred years. Why he had been the one to live, while so many others had died. 

The weight of his past responsibility was constant, a strange burden that he didn’t fully understand. Yet, no matter how he tried to avoid it, there was something burning inside of him that kept pushing him towards the calamity. Perhaps it was a shard of the determination he had possessed before. If it was strong enough to keep Link going, even after one hundred years, whoever Link has been before must’ve been an impressive person. Impressive enough to hold the hopes of an entire kingdom on his too small shoulders. Whoever Link was now, he didn’t think he possessed that. 

Zelda had whispered into his mind that he was Hyrule’s last hope. Everyone’s last hope. That in and of itself was enough to keep him going day after day, each morning bringing him a little closer to his inevitable fight with calamity Ganon. The prospect of it scared him a little. Sure, he was nervous about fighting the thing that had taken Hyrule from a massive kingdom to what it was today, but Link was more scared of what would happen after he helped seal the calamity. Of how everything would change. 

Link had grown fond of Hyrule as it was, of the wild and free Hyrule. But if he succeeded, what would become of that Hyrule? Or him, for that matter. He would no longer be just a no name traveler, free to disappear into the mountains for days if he pleased. He couldn’t begin to image the change that would occur in his life, but it scared him. He was happy with his life now, a tad lonely, yet full of freedoms he would lose if he was bound to civilization once more. 

Sometimes, Link felt like he was living two lives at once. The sworn knight of princess Zelda, the hero chosen by the sword that seals the darkness, tied into fate to stop the calamity. And then… just Link. Link of the wild, the Link who never needed to talk, who lived free from expectations. The Link who could spend the whole day in the forest, gathering mushrooms then cooking them together with the bird he’d shot earlier and a few acorns for good measure, before falling asleep under the stars. While maybe he was lonely, with only a few jumbled memories to figure out who he once was, he was happy. At least, he thought so. But his past self was still there, tugging at the tips of his pointed ears, constantly reminding him of his duty. A life lived as two people. Perhaps that was where the hole in his chest came from. 

Still, for however long he could keep living life like this, Link supposed it wasn’t too bad. For however long it lasted, he could be content.

**Author's Note:**

> Sometimes you just write a random thousand word fic in the middle of the night, forget it exists, then proofread it and post it a month later after almost three years of not posting anything.   
> I have been writing, but it’s mostly been starting new projects and not finishing them, but not wanting to post anything that doesn’t at least have a finished first draft out of fear of being another unfinished fix left to torment readers. Perhaps one day my WIPs will be written. Perhaps. Until then I will continue to post the occasional short fic whenever it strikes my fancy.


End file.
